Post #53194 by ModMana on Tue, Sep 30, 2003 2:14 AM

In case you were wondering what the Pacific Islander Festival was like. Here' s my take on it.

I had never heard of this festival before this year so I really didn' t know what to expect. My first impression was a good one as I walked past several large tikis to enter the grounds. My second impression was "Wow, I can't believe there are so many people here!". Many thousands of people of all backgrounds and ages in the crowd...definitely a family event. Of course people of Polynesian dissent were especially well represented and seemed proud to be there.

There was a main stage that had entertainment all day including hula shows, musical performances, and a variety of other types of polynesian entertainment. Unfortunately we arrived too late to spend much time watching the stage entertainment. But we still enjoyed what we saw and heard of it.

There was plenty of opportunity for Polynesian cultural enlightenment. Lots of educational booths showcasing all aspects of Polynesian life. Some nice artifacts but most were not for sale.

There were at least a dozen food booths with varying qualities of authentic island style food. We had some very tasty lumpia and empanadas. Unfortunately this was a dry event so no Mai Tais.

Lots of booths (maybe 30?) selling all things polynesian. If you were looking for tiki items like us, there wasn't as much as we had hoped. Didn't see any carved tikis that were especially impressive. Too bad some of the great carvers from this board weren't represented there. The other booth items were mostly cheap crafty things but if you looked hard you could definitely find a few gems worth purchasing. It was fun looking for hidden treasures.

Overall I'd say this was a great way to spend the better part of a day. Plus, it was free to get in. I wouldn't exactly call it a "tiki" event because the focus seemed to be more on the culture as a whole. Tikis had only a peripheral presence, but that was OK. I would recommend going next year if you can.

ModMana :drink:

[ Edited by: ModMana on 2003-09-30 02:16 ]